Automatic document summarization is a process by which a document is fed to a computer or other processing device and a textual summary is generated for the document. Multi-document summarization is similar, except that a document set comprising a plurality of different documents (which is also referred to as a document cluster) is fed to the processing device and a summary is generated that summarizes the entire set of documents.
Document summarization, and especially multi-document summarization, is an increasingly important task. As document clusters grow larger, there is a greater need to summarize those documents in order to assist users. In some applications, the user needs to quickly find the most important information overall (in which case a generic summarization is helpful). In other applications, the user needs to quickly find information that is most relevant to the specific user (in which case a topic-focused summarization is helpful). Examples of applications where multi-document summarization can be helpful include news applications, email threads, blogs, reviews of various types, and information retrieval search results.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.